NEW YORK CITY & ONLINE – The highlight of Lark Mason Associates’ iGavel Auctions fall Asian sale on October 28 was a pair of Ming dynasty bronze figures of guardians that sold to a Chinese buyer for $187,500, including buyer’s premium, well ahead of the lot’s estimate of $12/18,000. The bronzes, which stood 17 inches tall, had previously crossed the block on February 25, 1983, when they were sold in a Sotheby’s New York sale of fine jades, Chinese works of art and furniture. According to Lark Mason, bronzes were the strongest category of the day, illustrating that interest in Chinese archaic bronzes, long regarded as one of the pinnacles of the bronze age throughout the world, has not subsided.

A more extensive sale recap will follow in a future issue.